Pamela Radcliff

Professor Radcliff, Professor of History, is a historian of Modern Spain, whose research has focused on mass politics, gender, civil society and democratic transitions.  Her recently published book is entitled:  Making Democratic Citizens in Spain: Civil Society and the Popular Origins of the Transition, 1960-1978 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).  In addition to teaching about Spanish history, she also offers courses on European women, fascism and communism, and democratization.

“Political Perspectives on Being Human in the 20th Century: Fascism, Communism and Democracy”

This lecture will discuss how the Enlightenment-inspired liberal revolutions of the late 18th and 19th centuries relied on the conviction that human beings were essentially rational individuals.  In the early 20th century, this political reading of human nature was severely challenged by movements like fascism and communism, which spoke to passionate masses, not rational individuals.  What has been the impact of these challenges on the 20th century understanding of democracy, which has emerged at the end of the century as the ideal of the “good society”?